The proportion of waste going to recycling is continuing to creep up towards a legally-binding target that local councils must meet by 2016, official figures suggest.

Latest figures released by the Welsh Government show that, provisionally, Wales recycled 54% of its waste in the 12 months to March – 2% above the last statutory target of 52% which was met last year.

In the first three months of this year, the recycling rate was at 53% – three percentage points up on the same period last year, but the total amount of waste bucked a longer-term trend by increasing by 5%.

A series of incrementally increasing targets have been set for councils to meet for the level of their waste that is being reused, recycled or composted in a bid to drastically reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill, culminating in a 70% target by 2025.

If councils do not meet the legally-binding targets, they risk incurring fines which escalate according to the size of the overshoot.

The latest figures show Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf are still recycling less waste than the old 52% target, at 50%, 48% and 49% respectively, while Newport (52%), Torfaen (52%), Swansea (53%) and Powys (53%) all remain under the 2016 target. The other 15 councils are already meeting that, according to the latest snapshot.

Natural Resources Minister John Griffiths said Wales was recycling “more than ever”.

Mr Griffiths said: “We continue to lead the way in the UK for reuse, recycling and composting, and we are making good progress towards our target of 58% recycling by 2016 and 70% recycling by 2025.

“There is much more to do, but we will continue to support Welsh councils to meet their recycling targets and to develop the most effective waste collection services through the Collaborative Change Programme. This programme will provide an extra £4m of investment to Welsh councils this year.

Over a rolling 12 month period, Denbighshire and Monmouthshire were the top performing local authorities with provisional

annual figures of 63% for the year to March 2014, followed by Pembrokeshire at 60%. Caerphilly and Ceredigion both reached recycling rates of 58%.

Mal Williams, director of Zero Waste Wales, said he was “delighted” by the results, given Wales was making steady progress compared to England.

He said: “This steady progress in Wales year-on-year is made more impressive by the fact that performance in England is stalling – retreating even – at around 42%, over 10% behind Wales.

“Many authorities are over 60% and the others will catch up eventually. By contrast Defra [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] has given up and is leaving it to the marketplace.

“Wales has an ambitious, well thought-out strategy that is focused on achieving habit-change and is delivered mostly by the public sector – so quality of the materials collected can be focused upon rather than a maximising of return to shareholders.

“Wales is over half way to zero-waste, some say the easy half.

“The people of Wales are committing to changing their waste habits in a way that is a shining example to others and the government is backing that commitment with the right level of investment.”